Christian Student Fellowship exists as a community of diverse Christians from various Christian backgrounds.  Each year we have students from many Christian denominations: Methodists, Lutherans, Mennonites, Baptists, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and more.  Therefore, we seek to present, as CS Lewis calls it, a Mere Christianity (which is a great book by the way).  Perhaps another way to say it would be historic Christian orthodoxy: the set of truths that have all Christians have held to since the beginning (as Vincent of Lerins stated, what has been believed everywhere at all times and by all).

 

Jesus Christ stands at the center of why we exist.  Jesus of Nazareth was fully man and fully God, the beginning and the end, our Lord and Savior.  In his life, death and resurrection he showed us how to live as the true human and showed us who God is.  His death and resurrection bring reconciliation between humanity and God, saving us from sins and making us new creations.

 

As Christians we understand that God exists eternally as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This is a confusing belief for many and is often approached as a topic just for theologians, but we find in it an important truth: God is inherently relational.  God the Father has existed in relationship with God the Son through God the Holy Spirit for all eternity (and humans are invited to partake of this relationship).  Each of these three persons share in the one being of God (God is three persons in one being).  A good analogy for this is a marital relationship: just as a husband and wife remain separate persons, in another way they constitute one unit.

 

We also believe that all humans are sinful, broken, messed up people in need of help because we cannot save or fix ourselves.  The only place salvation, forgiveness and healing are found is in Jesus Christ.  Salvation in Jesus Christ is a free gift - we cannot earn it, none of us deserve it.  Therefore you could say we believe you are saved by grace through faith.

 

As Christians, we recognize we cannot live this life on our own strength.  We rely on the strength of the Holy Spirit as we seek to live as disciples of Jesus.  Along with this we affirm the importance of communion with God through both solitude (such as individual prayer and Bible reading) and community (by being part of a group of Christians).

 

Of course, we affirm the importance of the Bible as inspired by God. 

 

We believe that being a Christian is not just about believing things in your head, but living out faith, so we take Jesus seriously when he says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself.